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Issue 84 Summer 2009 mi NiZ THE NEWSLETTER OF NEW ZEALAND MINIATURE BOTTLE CLUB Australasia’s only Miniature Bottle Club - www.minisnz.com WELSH WHISKY: “A RARE BIT?” Although my main area of collecting is scotch whisky, I keep a section in my cabinet for whiskies from around the world (excluding bourbons, although I do collect personalised Jim Beam bottles). Recently a patient of mine brought me back a Welsh whisky miniature from Wales itself. Being a doctor, you sometimes develop relationships with some patients that go slightly deeper than just the doctor-patient relationship, and if these patients travel overseas, they can be and excellent sources of minis. I noted that I had very few Welsh miniatures (in fact only two), and after doing some research about Welsh whisky, it turned out they didn’t contain Welsh whisky at all! In fact, if you tried to buy any genuine Welsh whisky prior to 2000, you would have found it mission impossible because the last distillery had closed at the end of the 1800s. Like the other Celtic nations, Wales has a long history of spirit distillation. It started as far back in the 4 th century, with a man known as Reaullt Hir, distilling on Bardsey Island off the North Wales coast. The ingredients of this early spirit, known universally as “aquae vitae” or “gwirod” in the Welsh language, was a mix of barley, yeast and honey distilled to make a basic raw spirit. In more recent times there was a small commercial distillery at Dale in Pembrokeshire, which opened in 1705. The distillery was owned by Evan William’s family who later emigrated to the USA and helped found the Kentucky Whiskey Industry. His name is still attached to a number of high quality bourbons to this day. It is rumoured that even the famous Jack Daniels is from Welsh stock. In the 19 th Century a whisky distillery operated at Frongoch near Bala in North Wales under the chairmanship of a Mr Robert Willis. In the late 1800s, the “chapel building mania” in Wales with its associated temperance movement, combined with the unfortunate death of Mr Willis under the wheels of a horse and cart, conspired to put an end to legal distillation in Wales for more than 100 years. In the 1990s, the Brecon Brewery Ltd produced Swn Y Mor (or Sound of the Sea) which claimed to be a Welsh product containing a Welsh distilled grain spirit, but the source of the spirit was a mystery because at the time there was no distillery in Wales. The company then went through various changes. Firstly “Brecon Brewery Ltd”, then “Welsh Whisky Ltd”, and then “Welsh Distillers Ltd”. The aim was to distil a single malt whisky on Welsh soil under the label Prince of Wales. However, as with Swn Y Mor the product was in fact a blend of Scotch whiskies and not Welsh distilled at all and this led to a prosecution by the Scotch Whisky Association. On top of this, three of the company’s directors were successfully prosecuted for duty fraud of over £250,000. Dafydd Gittins, a former director of the companies, was also independently caught up in allegations of entanglement in narcotics and jailed at about the same time. However, Gittins had been serious in his intent to establish a true Welsh distillery for the company. He had successfully secured a considerable amount of European Union (EU) aid for the development of a new still for the company with technical help from the University of Surrey. In 2000, Penderyn Distillery started production of the Penderyn single malt Welsh Whisky in Wales using the same EU funded still secured from the collapse of the former company. The first bottles went on sale on 1 March 2004, St David’s Day. Called the Gwallia Distillery, it is situated at the village of Penderyn in the Brecon Beacons National Park. My patient brought me the Danzy Jones miniature pictured above. It contains “Wysgi Licor” and is Wale’s only whisky liqueur. It is named after a journeyman stonemason who, in the custom of many Welsh working men in the late 19 th century, added herbs and rosehip syrup to his whisky, which he drank in the form of a toddy. Ken Chin Top End tequilas I haven’t seen any Tequila minis featured here for a long time, so I thought I would show you some of the “Top End” Tequilas. My guess is that very few people have seen these. They all are definitely very hard to find! First is a set of Hacienda De La Flor tequilas. These are tall slender minis, with metal labels & cork tops. Even though the labels all look the same, the first is Anejo, the second is Reposado, & the third is Blanco. Next is Real De Penjamo Tequila. These minis have a metal foil label, and are encased in wooden yokes. They are in order by Anejo, Reposado, & Blanco. I have seen some of these minis without the wooden yokes. To the left is one of my top two tequila sets. This colorful set is Reserva De Mexico Tequila. The first is Anejo, the blue mini is Reposado, and the last one is Blanco. I absolutely love the shape and color of these minis. Finally we come to one of the newest tequila sets I have. They are Angel Bendito Tequila. This set is the other of my top two favorite tequilas. The mini bottles actually slant forward, from bottom to top, and with the gold metal halos on the round glass tops, they actually do look like little angles. All of these minis are hand made, and as I mentioned earlier, all are quite hard to find. Jim Crawford Rare Central Americans We tend to associate Mexico and the Caribbean with Tequilas, Rum, Curacao and cheap micros but in the 1930’s to the 1960’s they made some great ceramic and molded glass bottles. I have a few of these to show you today. I’m sure that you will agree that for such unusual and old bottles the bid prices were very disappointing. Anglo Swiss are from the 1960’s and are probably the best known of the Mexican ceramic bottles. Shown are a Dancing Black Lady or possibly a Jazz Singer. She measures 140mm (5.5”) high. At US$20.61 she failed to meet the reserve on Ebay. The boxer is the same height and he also failed to meet the reserve with a bid of US$12.49 The Dutch Boy is a little taller at 150mm (6”) but he also failed to meet the reserve with a bid of only US$14.39. The Sailor Boy is one of several that I found on the web. The Pig is only 125mm (5”) high and he faired the worst of the lot with an, unacceptable, bid of only US$6.99. Next we have two ladies, two girls and Santa Claus, all of which came from searching the internet so I cannot tell you how tall they are. The four Francesa Mexican molded glass bottles are from the 1930’s. The seller of three of them had an asking price (Buy it Now) of US$50 each but got no bids despite being re- listed several times. I can’t tell you how tall these are as the seller did not say. We have a Sailor Boy, a Girl and what was said to be a Dog but looks to me more like a Pig (compare it with the Anglo Swiss Pig above). I found the girl with the green background elsewhere but she is just a label and contents variation from the other girl. The ladies below are from V.M. Ramirez and were made in Puerto Rico in 1942. The exact bottles are listed in Bob Snyder's Bottles in Miniature Vol. III. They are 4 of a set of at least seven. The yellow lady sold for US$22.38. I would have expected more and so evidently did the seller as the other three were listed as ‘Buy it Now’ at US$55 each. Unfortunately they did not sell. Note that Bob listed these as being worth US$20 each in 1972 – it just goes to illustrate how the hobby is going backwards! The next bottle looks like it should be part of the Anglo Swiss set but was made by Papillon of Mexico. It represents a Groom. I presume there was also a Bride and maybe more figures in this set. He stands 150mm (6”) high and sold for US$9.49. There are at least three variations of this bottle – look at the shoes. Great bottles, but why do they not sell for more? I will do my best to bring you some more older bottle sets in future miNiZ. David Smith OOODDDDDD SSSPPPOOOTTT From New Scientist Question: It is accepted among Australian beer drinkers that a glass of cold draught lager holds it’s head for longer if the beer is pulled in two or three separate pours, rather than one continuous pour. What causes this effect and does it also apply to beers served at room temperature? Answer: If you pour the beer in one pull, the foam grows under uniform conditions, producing relatively few bubbles and mostly larger ones. Large bubbles pop quickly, so the head doesn’t last. By pausing during pulling, one gives the first bubbles time to grow larger and more flexible before the turbulence of the next pull shears some of them into more numerous, smaller bubbles.